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.\" $Id: curs_print.3x,v 1.38 2024/03/16 15:35:01 tom Exp $
.TH curs_print 3X 2024-03-16 "ncurses 6.5" "Library calls"
.SH NAME
\fB\%mcprint\fP \-
write binary data to printer using \fIterminfo\fR capabilities
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
\fB#include <curses.h>
.PP
\fBint mcprint(char *\fIdata\fP, int \fIlen\fP);
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
This function uses the \fBmc5p\fP or \fBmc4\fP and \fBmc5\fP capabilities,
if they are present, to ship given data to a printer attached to the terminal.
.PP
Note that the \fB\%mcprint\fP code has no way
to do flow control with the printer
or to know how much buffering it has.
Your application is responsible for
keeping the rate of writes to the printer below its continuous throughput rate
(typically about half of its nominal cps rating).
Dot-matrix printers and
6-page-per-minute lasers can typically handle 80cps, so a good conservative
rule of thumb is to sleep for a second after shipping each 80-character line.
.
.SH RETURN VALUE
The \fB\%mcprint\fP function returns \fBERR\fP if the write operation aborted
for some reason.
In this case, \fB\%errno\fP will contain either an error associated
with \fBwrite\fP(2) or one of the following:
.TP 5
\fBENODEV\fP
Capabilities for printer redirection do not exist.
.TP 5
\fBENOMEM\fP
Couldn't allocate sufficient memory to buffer the printer write.
.PP
When \fB\%mcprint\fP succeeds, it returns the number of characters actually
sent to the printer.
.SH EXTENSIONS
\fB\%mcprint\fP was designed for
\fB\%ncurses\fP(3X),
and was not found in SVr4
.IR curses ,
4.4BSD
.IR curses ,
or any other previous curses implementation.
.SH PORTABILITY
Applications employing this
.I \%ncurses
extension should condition its use on the visibility of the
.B \%NCURSES_VERSION
preprocessor macro.
.SH BUGS
Padding in the
\fBmc5p\fP,
\fBmc4\fP, and
\fBmc5\fP capabilities is not interpreted.
.SH SEE ALSO
\fB\%curses\fP(3X)
